<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Sunflowers by ashangel101010</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25557385">Sunflowers</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashangel101010/pseuds/ashangel101010'>ashangel101010</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anakin Skywalker Is Naturally Drawn to Palpatines, Armitage Hux Has Feelings, Episode: s04e18 Crisis on Naboo, Gen, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, M/M, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Nice Armitage Hux, Planet Naboo (Star Wars), Scarred Armitage Hux, Sunflower Field from Robot Chicken Star Wars Specials, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 11:47:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,528</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25557385</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashangel101010/pseuds/ashangel101010</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Anakin is a sunflower.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armitage Hux &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Armitage Hux &amp; Kylo Ren, Sheev Palpatine &amp; Anakin Skywalker, Sheev Palpatine/Anakin Skywalker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sunflowers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I own nothing in the Star Wars universe or anything in any universe; I just like writing stories in that universe.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sunflowers</p><p>*</p><p>Main Theme- All the Madmen by David Bowie</p><p>*</p><p>            Anakin Skywalker should be going over the security measures with the Chancellor’s security team for the tenth time in two days. Or he should be training Snips in the forms. Or he should be trying to sneak in a loving session with his secret wife. He’s doing none of those things.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s just so dreadful this morning. I need to get away for a bit. Will you help me, dear boy?” </em>
</p><p>And who was he to turn down the Chancellor’s request? It wasn’t hard to sneak the Chancellor away from his Senate Guards—<em>I’m taking him back to his apartments; we’ll be back for the ceremony</em>—and into the Chancellor’s red hover car. He rides it as fast possible, and it handles him better than any of the ships in his fleet.</p><p>Before he knows it, he’s deep into Lake Country before the Chancellor decides to speak up.</p><p>“Are you spiriting me away to an enchanted bog?” The graying ginger teases him lightly.</p><p>“No, sir, just to a happy place.” Anakin flashes his patent Skywalker smile—<em>everything is fine</em>— that’s earned an eye roll from his dear wife on numerous occasions. Palpatine chuckles and makes no comment. Eventually, Anakin pulls the hover car to the side of a dirt road. He gets out and then goes to open Palpatine’s door.</p><p>“My knight in dark tabards.” The warm baritone makes Anakin’s heart skip a few beats.</p><p><em>Calm down, you’re just the Chancellor’s friend and nothing more! </em>He reminds himself for the hundredth since the war began. Anakin focuses on leading the Chancellor to the happy place, but then he makes the mistake to look back and sees the Chancellor’s face. Little, brown spots dance across those pale cheeks.     </p><p>“You can freckle?” He stops himself from exclaiming, but he couldn’t muffle the awe in his voice.</p><p>“Unfortunately, it’s one of the deficiencies with skin like mine.” The Chancellor chuckles at his own self-degradation; it sends a sharp pang through Anakin’s heart.</p><p>“I think they make you look cuter.” Anakin halts mid-step when the weight of his slip-up hits him with the force of a railspeeder. He tries to think an excuse for his words, but he keeps drawing a blank.</p><p>“Strangers are in your happy place.” The Chancellor’s warm baritone becomes a chilly whisper.</p><p>In the sunflower field, two strangers are right in its eye. One wears blacks and grays with a tattered cape and a grim mask. There’s a cross-shaped lightsaber hilt attached to his belt. His right, gloved hand hovers above it like he knows that another Force-user is near. The other one wears a pink suit that contours to his svelte body with a sheathed sword hanging from his leather belt. Dozens of freckles appear on his pale skin. His hair is red just like Senator Palpatine had all those years ago, but its short strands run free from structure unlike Chancellor Palpatine’s silver hair. His eyes are a shining green as he looks around the sunflower field.  </p><p>Anakin turns his attention to the Chancellor with the intent of ordering him back to the hover car. But the Chancellor is no longer by his side. He turns his eyes back to the strangers and sees the Chancellor approaching them.</p><p>“Fa—” The red-haired stranger begins, but then his eyes turn a watery blue. “Oh, it’s just you.”</p><p>“Have we met, young man?” His Chancellor sounds befuddled with a hint of hurt.</p><p>“No, but I’ve heard of you.”</p><p>“I can’t say the same of you.”</p><p>“Right. I’m Hux of the Unknown Regions.” He offers no hand or even a polite wave; he looks nervously at his companion. “He’s my…associate. His name is Kylo.”  </p><p>“<em>Associate</em>.” Kylo’s voice sounds far too mechanical to be natural like he’s using a vocoder. Anakin wonders if this Kylo is embarrassed by his own voice. Or maybe a criminal on the lam.</p><p>“It’s not like our ranks mean anything here.” Hux huffs at the dull-colored man.</p><p>“Ranks? As in military?” His Chancellor inquires.</p><p>“I am, er, <em>was</em> a general. Kylo was my…co-commander.”  </p><p>“I was more than that!” The vocoder scrambles into an eye-wincing screech from his anger.</p><p>“I think you stopped being a prince when mummy dearest dissolved the monarchy.” He retorts and then his eyes wander beyond the people around him. He brings both his hands—one pink, one white—up to his face and curl them around his thin lips.</p><p>“HEY, YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!!” The younger ginger shouts, causing his cankerous companion to jump. His Chancellor remains rooted in his spot with a blank expression.</p><p><em>How did he know I was here? Maybe he’s a Force-user too. </em>Anakin decides to reveal himself and walks into the sunflower field. Hux smiles at him with a bit of teeth, slightly crooked teeth.</p><p>“You are a sunflower.”</p><p>“Don’t you mean I’m tall like a sunflower?”</p><p>“Not at all! The light shines upon you, and you soak it all up with your head held high.” Hux’s green eyes shimmer like he’s holding back his sadness.  </p><p>“What a creepy thing to say.” Kylo remarks cruelly. Hux smirks at him with his eyes closed like a crafty fox.</p><p>“I thought you would learn by now not to pick a fight with someone you can’t beat.”</p><p>“I could’ve beaten that ghost!”</p><p>“<em>Sith Spirit</em>. And trying to set her temple on fire does not necessarily destroy her. You would need to destroy the object she’s tied to, and I doubt Empress Acina would tether her spirit to a temple mostly made of flammable flora.”  </p><p>“Sith Spirit?” <em>Why would someone nice like Armitage be in a Sith temple? The other one I can totally see; he was probably in there to find some relic to make him more powerful in the Force.  </em></p><p>“Jedi have Force Ghosts; Sith have Sith Spirits.” Armitage explains plainly.</p><p>“If that’s the case, then why did the temple have so many damn flowers?” Kylo complains bitterly.</p><p>“Because she was an avid horticulturist. She wrote books on it while managing her Empire. I’ve got a datapad with two of her books.”</p><p>“Hux, I want to say that surprises me, but, considering how often you stopped to talk to plants, I’m certain you’ve lost your mind years ago.” Armitage furrows his brows and frowns.</p><p>“Have you been watching me on the ship and the base?” Hux’s face turns a darker shade of pink than his outfit.  </p><p>“You’re making it sound like I’m a <em>pervert</em>!”</p><p>“I would say more like a stalker with anger management issues.” Anakin adds and smirks when Kylo looks at him. He can feel the dramatically-dressed man’s irritation in the Force.</p><p>“And delusions of grandeur!” Armitage sing-songs.</p><p>“What about your delusions, Hux? You labor under a massive one if you believe that you can lead the FO into a peaceful direction. It was built upon lies and blood! The only way your <em>delusion </em>can come true is if you burn it down and the people along with it.”  </p><p>“Snoke isn’t here to praise you, Kylo. Nor is here to do anything to us.” Armitage’s watery green freezes into the most chilling blue. The coldest of furies lay behind those eyes. Anakin shivers.</p><p>“We can’t stay here forever!” Kylo whines mechanically.</p><p>“That’s not up to us.” Then, Armitage’s eyes drift to Anakin’s; the eyes are green again.</p><p>“I would like to help you go home, but I don’t have any ships to spare.” <em>Padmé might, but she won’t give her ship to a complete stranger. Even if he’s an adorable ginger weirdo. </em></p><p>“I was thinking more along the lines of gainful employment. I’ve fought in a galaxy-spanning war, which we won, and understand the minutiae of military bureaucracy. I know a variety of languages, but the most pertinent ones would be Ancient Sith, Naboo, Mando’a, Sy Bisti, and Minnisiat. Additionally, I know my way around Sith temples and a sword. I’m also an amateur horticulturist.” Armitage flashes his most holo-genic smile, while Kylo shakes his head hard in disapproval.</p><p>“I’d love to hire you, but I would need the Council’s approval.”</p><p>“No, you don’t, my dear.” Palpatine’s baritone graces his ears once more, and Anakin can’t help but look at him. He looks a little paler, and Anakin worries that the summer heat is finally getting to him.</p><p>“But, sir, I would need their approval since he’s clearly not a citizen of the Republic nor a clone.”</p><p>“It’s <em>suggested </em>for Jedi Generals to seek their approval; it’s not an actual rule, but a suggestion that you can abide by or ignore at your own discretion. Of course, you can’t make him a high-ranking officer like a captain or a commander, but you could use him as <em>your </em>aide-de-camp.”</p><p>“<em>Aide-de-camp</em>? But no Jedi has one.” <em>Nor should we really be fighting in a war. </em></p><p>“Perhaps not amongst your fellow Jedi, but it’s quite common among the more <em>mundane </em>high-ranking officers to have their own aides. And, my boy, you are worth more than any one of them.” The Chancellor’s sincerity takes Anakin’s breathe away, and it takes him a moment to recover.  </p><p>“……I’ll think about it.”</p><p>*</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Author’s Comments- Here are the links: </p><p>The sunflower field is actually from the Robot Chicken Star Wars Specials, which I’ve re-watched more than any of the movies: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzW727RY-ig">Link</a></p><p>Robeskins are a common form of clothing for the Yuuzhan Vong’s Worker caste, the Shamed Ones, and Familiars. It’s described as being thick, jelly-like cloth that even ripped to shreds would grow; it fed on the wearer’s sweat and oils and can even heal the wearer by feeding on necrotic flesh and pathogens. Since there’s no official or even fan art on robeskins, I decided to imagine them being like the clothing/skin that Ventricosus (the pink jellyfish lady in the clip) from Land of the Lustrous would wear, except plainer: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV96hi7OLd4">Link</a></p><p>Here is an image of Hux’s Sith sword, Curse Breaker: <a href="http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/8/8f/Sithsword-NEGWT.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20060707200628">Link</a></p><p>Here is an image of Empress Acina, formerly Darth Acina, who existed during the Cold War of the Star Wars: Old Republic game. Luckily for me, she died (or could die depending on the player’s choices) on Iokath, a planet that exists somewhere in the Unknown Regions: <a href="https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/0/0a/Empress_Acina.png/revision/latest/top-crop/width/360/height/450?cb=20170312191033">Link</a></p><p>This is set during the late morning of season four’s episode eighteen’s “Crisis on Naboo.” The Wookie says the episode takes place sometime during 20 BBY, probably somewhere in the spring or summer since I don’t see any traces of fall or winter in the episode, so we’ll go with summer. Also, I may turn this into a series. Maybe after re-watching all of CW, but I’m not planning a re-watch for quite a while. Odds are if I do, then Hux will probably be sword-fighting Dooku after Kylo got his sweet ass handed to him. We’ll see.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>